A deck of tarot cards is an interesting object containing colourful images used to determine a person’s career, life, and romantic vibes. Although with occult attributions, these cards have come through difficult times of criticism and emerged as one of the options for basing decisions from. These cards may be dubious divination pieces, but they have not survived religious censure for nothing. Below is a general tarot card timeline that shows how these cards have evolved through use and alterations.
- 10th century – Chinese used money cards as playing cards. These are long and narrow, numbered, and suited.
- 13th century – First appearance of cards in Europe. These were said to have been brought into the continent by fortune-telling gypsies who then used the method of engraving to put images on wood. Although German, Italian, and French scholars are divided into where the first cards arrived, records show that King Charles VI of France had three decks of tarot cards in his possession in 1392. These were believed to be used for playing. In 1397, Paris regulated the public use of cards during working days because of their effect on workers’ productivity.
- 14th century – The Church denounced cards as the creation of Satan due to their negative effects on people and their opposition to the idea of providence. During this time, cards related to the Church underwent some facelifts: Pope, Female Pope, Emperor, and Empress.
- 15th century – Playing and tarot cards became household items in the upper-class society. Despite this, the Church continued public censorship of the cards. It is also in this century that the oldest surviving card decks made for the Visconti family were found. These cards became the touchstone for the numbering, design, and interpretation of modern card decks.
- 16th century – During the Reformation period in Europe, cards began to depict Christian ideals. Following the appearance of Marcoloni’s Le Sorti, other card decks used for cartomancy or future-telling also appeared. The Roman Catholic Church continued its censorship, especially for sortilege with cards, a practice that was becoming popular during the time.
- 17th century – The use of cards expanded to a more spiritual level. Antoine Court de Gebelin, a Swiss occult writer and freemason, believed that tarot cards were used by Egyptian priests to hide information about the world in order to preserve their knowledge amid increasing dominance of the church.
- 18th century – The period of Enlightenment made of use cards as objects for learning. According to the Marziano text, Michelangelo, the inventor of the Minchiate tarot deck format, used cards to teach children the discipline of arithmetic. Patience, an early version of solitaire, also became popular; in fact, Napoleon played the game during his exile to the Isle of Elba. In the middle of this century, tarot cards were veiled in occultism after Eliphas Levi linked the cards to Cabala by adding 22 trump cards and Hebrew letters into them.
In modern times, tarot decks are used for reading the different aspects of a person’s life. Although attributed to mystical and occult practices, these cards still remain useful in understanding the unknowns of life, allowing people to be even better decision-makers.